The waters of separation
You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net
1 Friends, very happy to be out here again tonight to minister in the name of our beloved Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hearing that old song, "Only Believe, all things are possible..." I just think how many times that I've been called to the pulpit by that, by different languages around the world, all different types of churches, and peoples, the worldwide around.
Now, before we start into the service tonight, knowing that we have just a limited time, let us bow our heads and talk to the King of kings just for a moment.
Our Heavenly Father, we come to Thee tonight, in the name of the Lord Jesus. First, placing that name, for we've been promised that if we would ask anything in His name, we would receive it. We have no righteousness of our own. We come unworthy, pleading for mercy, not for judgment---mercy.
And we ask that You'll be merciful to us tonight. Pardon us from our sins and trespasses. Not knowing but what this may be the last night that we shall be upon the earth. Tomorrow we may be over at Your house. We pray, God, if there's any among us who isn't ready at this time, or any sin among us, take it away just now, that we'll have freedom in the hour of our death and the parting from this life.
Remember, Father, those tonight who are sick and afflicted. May the Holy Spirit in great mercy, come tonight, and heal all the sick and the afflicted. Grant it, Lord. Forgive us, we ask again; get into the Word, we pray, and deliver it to the people's hearts and build them for faith. For this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, tomorrow, I suppose ... I thought, maybe tonight... I haven't seen him as yet; Brother Moore is supposed to be here to speak for us, and he... I'm kind of going into something I seldom do: is to try to speak, and then pray for the sick. And the understanding of this, while we're just a small group of us on this Monday night... I might say this, that it's a different type of a ministry, especially in the type which the dear Heavenly Father has given me to minister to the people. It's a different type of anointing, the same spirit; just like there's different gifts, but the same spirit. And one spirit: when you're preaching, you're just feel like you're just building yourself up.
And the other type: one vision will do more to you than preaching six hours on the pulpit as hard as you can preach. It takes something away from you.
And I am trusting to God that Brother Moore will hurry right along, for I certainly need him.
John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
2 Now, maybe tomorrow night ... and Brother Arganbright, one of the, I believe, chairman of the Christian Businessmen, Full Gospel Internationally, is to be here tomorrow night and stay with us a few nights. Which immediately after the service here, we fly to Zurich, Sweden to begin there---just one day after we leave this service. Pretty heavy schedule on for quite a while, up into Canada and around.
And I understand that Brother Toms ... I haven't got to speak to him, but his wife is coming tomorrow, I believe. Is that right, Brother Toms? All the way from South Africa to visit him here while he's here. I got something to speak about, Brother Toms, a little later, as soon as Brother Jack comes so he can take it.
And about his business here in America, and what he does in South Africa for the people. Brother Toms was in most of the African meeting, as we were over there, and seen the Lord in His great mighty powers.
I understood tonight, when they come and got me, that he's holding the afternoon instruction service. Brother Toms is a very well instructed man, in the Scriptures on divine healing. He sat with my old friend Brother Bosworth, and Tommy Osborn, and many of those great teachers of the day.
Now, I say this complimentary to Brother Bosworth: I don't know of a person living on earth today knows anymore of the Scripture of divine healing than F. F. Bosworth. How many ever knowed of F. F. Bosworth? Let's see your hands. Why sure, he's no stranger anywhere, hardly, in the world. He'll probably be up this week. I had an invitation to come up to Boston for a great auditorium that would seat, I believe, twelve thousand people, for a hundred dollars a week just for three weeks. Could you imagine that? Take up a couple of offerings, and that would settle it.
But I couldn't take it, because I was already scheduled up for quite a long time ahead. Brother Schoeman from South Africa, I think, the President of the Ministerial Association is leaving Sweden immediately after we leave there, and we're to join together, fixed services, go back into Africa, and up into Tanganyika, and so forth, around over the different parts of the world.
3 Now, tonight, we want to speak just a little while on the Word. For faith cometh by hearing and hearing of the Word.
Brother Toms ... I just heard him a few moments ago, read a scripture, out of the Bible, which I certainly do appreciate.
Now, I want to read just a little to go with that, found in Ephesians the 5th chapter. I like the book of Ephesians, don't you? I just think... I know the ministers will appreciate that. Ephesian ... if it wasn't for the Ephesian book, I hardly know how I could just approach it.
You see, there's two schools of thought. One of them is Calvinistic; the other one is Arminian. Well, of course, you know I belong to the Calvinistic school, being a Baptist. So then, what it did, both of them run out on limbs. One went to seed this way, and the other one went to seed that way. But I think the book of Ephesians brings them both right back and puts them in the stump where they belong. So, I really like the book of Ephesians. It kind of keeps us straightened out, brethren, in our theology, doesn't it? The book of Ephesians, and I like it real well.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
4 Now, tonight, I wish to read from the 5th chapter, a verse or two, and the 25th and 26th verses.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word,
"The washing of the water by the Word." The subject is: The Waters Of Separation.
Going back into the Old Testament, where our brother just read the Scripture lesson tonight, to teach a little bit from the Word, the Lord willing.
Now, tomorrow... The Old Testament: Many people just discard that old book when it's really the... It's the shadow of the new. The only way that I can feel like I get half-way lined up is to look back in the Old Testament and see the shadows, then I know what the New Testament ought to be like. If the Old Testament was a shadow... If you seen the sun setting to your back, and your going towards your shadow, you can very well tell what you are, from the looks of your shadow. And all the Old Testament was a shadow of the New. That way, in teaching it from the Old Testament views, you kind of have a general conception of what the New Testament will be.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
5 Now, in this great journey that the children of Israel was in---at the time of the setting of this passage we have under consideration now---was when Moses had went down into Egypt and had brought the children of Israel out, and God in his mercy was making preparations of how that He could make a way for His people, after they had sinned, to be reconciled again back to Him. Wonderful, beautiful picture of the old type!
Now, I want you to see it, as Moses went down to deliver the children of Israel, how God worked miracles. The people had got into a time just about like they are now. By the way, the journey from Egypt to Palestine was a type of the church in its journey today.
As they were led naturally, we are led spiritually. I know many teachers of the schools, say that the promised land represented heaven, but I think it represents the millennium. Because they had wars and troubles still in the promised land.
They come up, and, to my opinion, the church tonight is at the stage of the old church age at Kadesh-Barnea, where they're wandering about after refusing to walk in the light.
6 That's why I think America tonight, that our lovely land here is in the confusion; we can't have a revival seems like. Why there's been enough Gospel preached around America, and God's worked enough signs and wonders, to convert a thousand nations this time. Great men have crossed the country; Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, and many of the great men in the world today out preaching the Gospel of deliverance and so forth, and great crowds and throngs come out; they listen, go back, sit down, go on their same routine.
If you only knew, friend, that's spiritual. You have to realize that every person has a spirit in them. And if the person could only see what kind of a spirit dominated your life, you that acted different towards Christ, you'd be ashamed of yourself.
No matter how you're dressed and how well ... how popular you are with the people, yet in your heart ... if God could only turn the looking glass to your heart.
7 Many times in dealing with spiritual things, you see them when they move out. Someone was just asking me here not long ago. I was at Calgary, Canada, and a boy come in; they had him in a straight jacket. And they come in the back of the room; and he was cursing and carrying on, and I never heard such in my life. And the father was trying to hold him, and when he got on the inside, he looked over to me and said, "William Branham, you ain't got nothing to do with me." Well, the father looked up. Said, "He don't even know his own name. How did he know your name?"
I was standing off a great distance from him. Oh, how he was cursing me and carrying on. And he said, "You ain't got nothing to do with me." And I asked the audience if they'd just be reverent. The ushers come to take him out. Just then I seen the Holy Spirit move out, the Angel of the Lord. I said, "Now bring him here just a minute." When they went to bring him, he started kicking, and frothing, and biting. He's in a straight jacket, and they brought him up close to...
And then when the vision come and told just what it was: a sin that had been committed by his father that caused the child to be in that condition. The father fell down and repented. And when that evil spirit went from that boy, thousands times thousands of people in the stampede grounds there that night, looked, and like a great big spider in a black shadow floating around. Oh, my! It was really quiet. And it went around out of the place, out through the building and went away.
8 Many times you see them in different forms. Here recently I seen one coming from a woman, that looked like a bat with great big hairs hanging under its legs, and so forth; and its wings come right out, right straight up. They're evil spirits. And many times it's someone looking ever so beautiful on the outside, could only look on the inside and see what that is. We're dominated by spirit.
Now, we see that the children of Israel, after God promising Abraham that his seed would sojourn four hundred years and He would bring him out under a hand of deliverance. There was a man born, by the name of Moses, a very peculiar child.
Of course, I believe that gifts and callings are without repentance. You can't make yourself something that you're not. You're not ... you're not... I differ a little bit with you, some of you Latter Rain brethren on that, of laying on of hands and giving gifts. I differ with you Scripturally.
I believe that you're born from God; God has set in the church certain things. God did it. And no matter how much you want to be something else... I couldn't make myself have brown eyes if I wanted them; they're blue.
Genesis 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
9 Who, taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature? We must do what we can with what we have to do with. What God has ordained us to do... If you'll stay right in your calling and abide there, God will use you. If you try to step over and do something else, you'll find yourself wrecked up somewhere. It's always that way. And that's the human race, though; you find it doing that.
When Moses went out ... odd child, born peculiar; God was with him. And when he was the age of forty, he thought surely the children of Israel would understand that he was to deliver them, but they did not. So they had to stay in bondage forty years longer.
But when he came out and begin to perform miracles down in Egypt, God was with him. Then when he took the children of God out, then it said, "A mixed multitude went with them."
See, the supernatural had been done, and when the supernatural's done, it'll really call all classes, and all types together. Everybody wants to look past the curtain, no matter where you are, who you are.
Exodus 12:38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
Matthew 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Luke 12:25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
10 Here some time ago, I was sitting in California. A very well known man in amongst the Full Gospel people, has a great church there. And the man come out; he dresses very nice. And there was a Presbyterian minister sitting by my side. Now, no one knew me; I just slipped in the side, with my coat down like this. The man is a very personal dear friend of mine.
And the man was talking, 'course, he's got a predominating way. And this man said to me, sitting there, said, "Do you think that looks like a servant of Christ?"
And I said, "Well, I'm not his judge." I said, "To me, looks all right to me."
And he said, "Well, listen," he said, "all this fanaticism about divine healing!" He said, "You know what?" Said, "There come a bunch of people through here not long ago." Said, "One time the Presbyterian church had the whole West Coast sewed up." He said, "We had churches, big churches everywhere, great congregations, the leading church on the West Coast." He said, "Then this Christian Science comes along, and," said, "then when they come along, they started like they were going to a mental condition to 'mind over matter.'" And said, "You know, it tore the Presbyterian church up." He said, "Now here comes along this here," and says, "then it starts in."
I said, "Look, fellow, I don't know who you are."
He said, "Well, I'm a Presbyterian minister."
"Well," I said, "I'm a Baptist preacher." So I said, "Let me tell you something. If you Presbyterian people would have stayed in the will of God, and taught the Word of God, they'd never had any excuse to have any fanaticism come." I said, "The reason that they raise up these things is because you let down the bars, because you've failed to give hungry children the bread of life. The hour is here. And if they can't eat from the true Word, they'll eat from a garbage can or anything else they can eat from, 'cause they're hungry."
11 What it is tonight: The children of God need to be fed with the true Word of God, of "Thus saith the Lord."
Divine healing is right; the souls are hungering for it. If it isn't coming one way, the devil will disguise it and bring it another way. So, they're hungry for it. And they know that it's true; as men step up with God, they find that.
Well, when you find the supernatural, every man is trying to look past the curtain. No matter who he is, he wants to see where he come from, where he's going, all about it. There's only one Book can tell you that; this is it. It tells you who you are, where you come from, and where you're going. It's the only Book there is, and that's the Bible, that'll tell you who you are, where you come from, and where you are going.
12 Now, I want you to notice: they went up, a mixed multitude, and that caused trouble among them as they got up there. But God, in His sovereign mercy, not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance, always makes a preparation of a way of escape for those who desire to come by the way of escape.
He did it in the antediluvian world. He did it in the days of calling out of Noah ... or, Moses, rather, calling out of Israel. He did it in the days of the Lord Jesus, and He's doing it yet today, just before the judgments are to strike the world.
God is calling out a people: those who are willing to walk and take God's preparation, how to escape the wrath that's coming upon the earth. And I trust that none that's in divine presence tonight, or will be, will ever have to stay here and suffer through the great wrath of God that's soon to come on the earth. There's no way at all of escaping it.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
13 Listen, if ... listen to this, mark it down: If God doesn't do something and send judgment to these nations right away, He'll have to resurrect Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize to them. That's right, we're at the end of the road. He's just, and He can't let us get by with the things that they're getting by with now, and be just. He'd have to apologize to those who He did destroy in the days gone by. So, we're at the end of the road.
It behooves you to check your spiritual condition every hour of the day, and be ready. For you don't know what time it's coming. God has made a way; He's sending everything, the preaching of the Word, signs, wonders. He gives one the message of preaching, another the sign message, another everything. Not willing that any should perish, setting His gifts in order in the church, and so forth, and still people continually wade right on through and just like they didn't even pay any attention to it.
If they only realized that in their soul was a spirit of the devil that was dominating their life. It can't be nothing else.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
14 One night before I leave, I want to speak on demonology, and my personal acquaintance with it, that you'd understand what it is.
Now, notice when they got up there into the wilderness and got into troubles and so forth. Our lovely Heavenly Father, not willing that any should perish, as I said, making all the types before the end time, or before this time. He said to Moses and Aaron, "Go take a red heifer without a spot whereon, never come a yoke, and she must be killed before the high priest, and how that she was to be caught up, and then burned and the ashes, made water of separation.
Let's go through that process just in a few moments. The first place, being a heifer, it was a sacrificial animal that spoke of the Lord, the burden-bearer. The work ox, that goes forth and works. The next thing. it spoke that she must be red, a solid red, not a spot, or a blemish of nothing else but red.
Now, red, to us, speaks of danger. Red's not a good color to us, in the way of speaking worldly. Red sometimes means the danger sign. But red, also, in the Scriptures, speak of redemption. Red has been God's sign of redemption, punishment.
Did you notice all the way down through the Scripture from the days of Adam, all the way down through until this day it's been one scarlet streak of red: blood.
I often wonder how people can shun the blood of the Lord Jesus the way they do after they see in His suffering.
Numbers 19:2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
Numbers 19:3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
15 Here sometime ago a gangster was shot in Chicago there; and where their fellow man's blood was spilled out onto the ground, they'd walk way around it to keep from touching the blood when they shot the criminal on the street.
Then I thought, Isn't that strange? They're very careful how they won't step in their fellowman's blood, but every day walk right through the blood of Jesus Christ as if it wasn't nothing. Counting it an unholy thing, just walking on, unconcerned. Preach the blood: they laugh right in your face, at preaching of the blood.
16 Notice, how it ought to be appreciated. Over in Illinois in a certain museum here sometime ago, I was passing through, looking around. I like to look at different things of sights, and scenes, and arts. I like to see God in everything that I look at.
And I happen to notice an old colored man in there, with just a little rim of hair around the back of his head. He had his hat over his chest like this, walking around looking. And he looked over into a little glass cage like. And all at once he stepped back, jumped. And I notice him with his eyes closed, and he was saying a little prayer or something there.
I stood and looked at him for a few moments, amazed at the old darky. He raised up his head, and he said, "Thank you, Lord." He looked back down again; the tears just run off his cheeks.
I thought, Wonder what the old fellow is looking at. I walked over there to where he was. And I said, "Good evening, Uncle."
He said, "How do you do, sir."
And I said, "I want to ask you a question." I said, "I'm a minister. What made you jump back and say that prayer that you were praying?"
He said, "Just look down there."
And I looked down there, I said, "I don't see nothing but a dress."
He said, "You see that stain on there?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "There's a mark of the slave belt around me." He said, "That's the blood of Abraham Lincoln. And the blood of that man laying there took a slave belt off of me." Said, "Wouldn't it make you a little excited too?"
I raised my hand, I said, "God, how I thank You. If a colored man could jump at the thoughts of Abraham Lincoln's blood from taking a slave belt from him, what ought a Christian do to the blood of Jesus Christ, who taken him out of bondage and give him freedom. What it ought to be. Oh, my, when I think of it!
17 Then, God making a way, always a way of an escape. Then I see back there that the red heifer was red, and here is the scientific of red.
You take... Red means "sin" to us. Red: "Though your sins be like crimson---red." But you take red and look through red to red, it makes white. Did you ever know that? Look through red at red, it turns white.
And that's what God did in Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus was shed, that God looking through His blood at our red sins turns white as snow. "Though your sins be like scarlet, yet they shall be white like snow."
Oh, when we think of it. That beautiful illustration how God, so that He could not, would not, see the sin of the people made a preparation.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
18 Here sometime ago I was standing up here in Ohio, where I was having a meeting. We was having a wonderful meeting. The great arena... There was so many people till I couldn't stay in the city. I have to pray all day. If we're going to have these meetings, I got to stay away from people. Even the manager and all of them.
So, I stay away in prayer. And I'd been away out praying, and, the first thing you know, when we... When I would eat, we'd come up to a little restaurant there, a little Dunkard restaurant, and the little ladies in there were such neat, nice looking, clean looking people, and they'd walk around very nice, ladylike, acting.
And after awhile, come Sunday and they closed up and went to church. They were all very religious. And they closed up and went to church.
So, I got hungry; I wasn't going to have a healing service that afternoon, so I was going to preach. And I thought, I'd better go get me a sandwich, 'cause I haven't eaten since a couple days before.
I went over and the little restaurant was closed, so I just walked across the road to a common little drive-in place, ever what they call it. And as I walked in the door, there stood a policeman, about my age, a man of about forty years old, with his arm around a women, playing a slot machine. And gambling is illegal in Ohio. They're the law.
I thought, What is this world coming to? Brethren, everybody is afraid of communism. Everybody is afraid that Russia is going to come over, or Germany is going to come over. Don't be afraid of any nation whipping us; they're not going to whip us; we're whipping ourself. Our own morals is what's polluting us. It isn't the robin that pecks on the apple that hurts it; it's the worm at the core that rots the apple. Our own morals among us, is what is killing us. Rejecting of Christ, living the life the way we do: That's what's killing us.
19 There was a policeman to uphold the law, standing there, perhaps, a married man with a bunch of children at home, playing a slot machine. I thought, Oh, mercy!
I looked back at the back, a young waitress standing back there, very vulgarly dressed, and some boys half drunk with their arms around her, and doing things they ought not to do. I thought, Oh, my! Let me get out of here. And I happened to look to my right, and there sat an old lady, old enough to be my grandmother, probably sixty-five or better. She had on those foul clothes, little short clothes, with the purple-looking stuff on her face, and her toenails painted the same way. Poor old thing, her skin was wrinkled and hanging, hair real close, and blue looking color, where it had been gray, and all frizzled up.
And I thought, Isn't that terrible? And sitting with two old men, and them drunk, one of them in summer time with a big army overcoat on.
And I said, "Oh, my! I said, "God, how can You stand it?" I said, "Why don't You wipe it off the face of the earth?"
Then I was sitting there thinking that, and all of a sudden; something struck me, and the Lord said for me to sit down. I went over in a corner behind the door and started praying. I thought, Lord, it looks like that You'd just simply tear the whole... Will my little Rebekah and Sarah, my two little girls, have to be raised up here in the world under such as that? I thought, How can You stand it, when it makes a sinner like me shiver, to think of such a thing?
20 Well, I got back there and I saw a vision that changed my picture altogether. I seen a world turning. And I noticed around it was a streak, like red, all around.
And I wondered what it was and as I drew close I seen myself as a boy. And when I would sin, well, then I seen Jesus standing in front, between me and God, and His blood act as a bumper. Every time I'd do anything wrong, it would hit Him. And He'd say, "Father, forgive him; he don't know what he's doing." And I'd do something else, and then it was just like the bumper on the car to keep me. God can't stand sin. The day you sin you're gone; that's all. But the blood of Jesus was protecting me, the wrath of God from me, and my sin would catch it. And He'd say, "Father, forgive him; he don't know what he's doing."
And I looked, and I said, "Lord, is my sins treating You like that?" And the blood running down His face. I crawled up a little closer. And I seen a book there, and my name was at the top, all kinds of sin wrote on it. I said, "Will You forgive me?" He touched His side and wrote "Pardoned!", throwed it over in the back, behind him, in the Sea of Forgetfulness. And I said, "Oh, how I appreciate You, Lord."
He said, "Now, I was willing to forgive you of your sins, but you want to condemn her for hers!"
21 That made a different question to me then. When I come out of the vision, I walked over to her. The man had got up and went out. I said, "How do you do?"
She looked around hiccupping, and smoking a cigarette, which I think is the lowest thing a woman could do. And so she was smoking a cigarette. She said, "Oh, hello."
I said, "Could I speak to you just a moment?"
She said, "I have company."
I said, "Not in that way. I'd just like to speak with you a minute."
She said, "Sit down."
I said, "I'm a Gospel preacher, lady." She threw her cigarette down. And I said, "My name is Brother Branham."
She said, "You're not the man down here?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She said, "I'm sorry I'm in this shape."
22 And I told her just exactly the vision I'd had. I said, "The blood of Jesus, sister, still atones for you. As long as you're mortal like this, you still have a chance to be saved." But I said, "When you go beyond that blood you're already judged." I said, "Won't you...?"
She told me her story, and it was enough to grind the heart of a stone man, how that she once was raised in a Christian home, with old-fashioned Methodist parents who went to church and did what was right.
She married a husband; he started drinking. She had daughters, and they were even members of the church, themselves. And how she'd took the road that was wrong. She said, "I've sinned away my day of grace."
I said, "Look, do you still have respect for the Lord Jesus?"
She said, "I do, sir."
I said, "Then He hasn't left you." I said, "No, He's still got mercy for you."
Said, "Do you think He'd receive me right like this?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am." I took her by the hand, knelt down there, that place, and, brother, we broke that place up into a prayer meeting, when we led her to the Lord Jesus. Yes!
23 That's it. We're looking to see the people and how the blood, that crimson blood, still around the world, to protect whosoever will. You can get by now, because God can't see you; you're still under the blood.
But whenever you try to leave, you don't know tonight, you may have to take your journey away from this world. Then you go in the presence of God, and you're already judged. 'Cause, you're judged by the way you judged Him.
Now, the red... When God looks down through red, He doesn't see red; he sees white. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white like snow."
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
24 And then, I notice the red heifer, how He said that she must be ... never have a yoke upon her.
If you notice how it represented Jesus. When He come, He never yoked himself up with any worldly order. He never taken Pharisee or Sadducee's side; He stayed free from both. He declared God to both sides.
And another way, that she must be killed in the presence of the high priest. The priest must see the heifer killed.
And so was Jesus, when Caiaphas even sentenced Him and so forth. There He was killed in the presence of the high priest, right upon Golgotha where he could look from the temple and see Him dying---in the presence of the high priest.
What a picture! How it speaks of the Lord Jesus. And then he must take his fingers and pick up the blood and make seven stripes across the door, right in the door of the congregation. That no one could come into the door except recognizing that something died to go before them. It was a public testimony of the Lord Jesus.
Oh, friend, I want you to see that so bad. A public testimony! Seven stripes, representing the seven church ages; which, by Israel, the seven church ages. We're in the last, the Laodicean.
And to every church age, He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Then it was to be burnt. All the body was to be burnt, and was to be made a waters of separation---mixed with water, and kept in a clean place outside the court.
Notice, that represented... The waters of separation represented the Word of God now. Wash us by the water, by the Word. The Word is the waters of separation. Christ was the sacrificial beast. And He died, in order...
You sick people listen to this. Christ died in order that He might be able to fulfill the Word. He was the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," and died making the waters of separation, as this is the Word.
This is Christ. Every word in here is God itself wrote in print. Receive it into your heart and watch what happens after you receive it.
Just take any divine promise. Listen to this, and you can make this statement; it's on recordings, everything. But I say this, and challenge anybody: The right mental attitude towards any divine promise of this Word will bring it to pass, regardless of what it is. If God said so, you take the right mental attitude towards that Word, and see what happens. God is obligated to His Word. He swore by it. We're going to get into that in a few nights.
Leviticus 4:6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the veil of the sanctuary.
Numbers 19:3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:
Numbers 19:4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:
Numbers 19:5 And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
Numbers 19:9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
25 How that the Word come to us as the waters of separation. Now remember, it was to be kept (Now, listen close.)... It was to be kept in a clean place. You get it? Not in a dirty, foul place: playing cards, having bunco games, playing a little lottery in the basement, having social parties, and dancing. The Word of God should be kept in a clean place, holy, consecrated: real church of the living God. Kept in a clean place, for it's the waters of separation.
I know that kind of burns a little bit, brethren. But it's good for you. Kept in a clean place, outside the courts. For it's to separate the sinner from his sin before he comes into fellowship. Notice. Then when a man sinned, the first thing he done, was to come to the waters of separation. A believer in his journey, on his road, and he done something wrong, like we in our journey. And this heifer that was to be burned, for waters of separation, had cedar, scarlet, and hyssop burnt with it. We'll pick that up in a few nights, the Lord willing, see what it is.
Cedar wood. Many people said Christ died on a dogwood cross. Wish we had time to go into it. Oh, and the hyssop, where it'd always sprinkle the blood, was a live root, they pulled up, a sagebrush, pulled up root and all, and was put with it. All of it speaking of the offices of God. Cedar, scarlet, and hyssop; just like Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the offices of the Godhead. How that the same God lived in the Fatherhood, in the Sonship, and in the Holy Spirit dispensation. All the same Father, same God. And how that each one of those woods represented the same thing, the same God.
Notice, it also represented divine healing. When Moses, back in the commandments, when he give orders for healing of leprosy, how the doves was to be killed, and over this scarlet, hyssop, also, and the cedar wood. A separation from their sickness. The same as separation from their sin. God has always had a preparation for healing, in all ages, all time.
When Moses took the children of Israel, and they begin to chide or fuss with Moses. Said, "Korah is just as good a man as Moses is. And there's more holy besides him," and all this. And they begin to go on the way they did, murmuring against God and against His servant. There come serpents in and bit them, and Moses interceded for them and God told him to make a serpent out of brass. It was for a compound reason: to forgive them of their chiding, and to heal them of their sicknesses, of the snake bites.
Jesus come along later, and He said, "Just as Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up."
Numbers 16:3 And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?
Numbers 19:6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
Numbers 21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Numbers 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
Numbers 21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
Numbers 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
26 How can you, brother, teach the Gospel, without including divine healing? Can't be done. It's inseparable. He was wounded for our transgressions, with His stripes we were healed. Same Christ; same thing; same blood. Sickness is a penalty of sin. All sickness come from sin. May not directly from your sin, but inherited. Before we had any sickness, we had no sin. When sickness came... When sin came... Sickness is an attribute, or a result of sin. And you cannot deal with sin in any matter, unless you deal with sickness. And you can't deal with sickness, 'less you deal with sin. They both run side by side.
If a great animal had me here tonight, and his paws was in me, just a cutting me, but his mouth wasn't bothering me, but if he was... His paw was in me, there's no need of me trying to cut off his toe, or cut off his paw, or what he's sticking me with. Knock him in the head, kills the whole thing. That's right. And when you hit sin in the head, you kill sickness with it. It's all got to be killed at the same time. You can't separate them. Amen. I'm not "amening" myself, but amen means "so be it." All right.
I believe it. There might be many promises in the Bible that I haven't faith enough to perform. But that's still... It's the same anyhow. I believe it.
Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
27 Here not long ago, all the things that I was ever taught in astronomy in the solar systems in the school, I had to take it every bit back. Science will raise up and they'll declare one thing to be perfectly, that's scientifically proved. A few years they scientifically prove that was wrong.
Why, a hundred and fifty years ago, one of the greatest scientists we had in France, said, "If a man ever went the terrific speed of thirty miles an hour, proved that gravitation would take him right off the earth." Brother, they don't pay any attention to that today. They're going sixteen hundred miles an hour and still trying to get faster. But the trouble of it is, with science, they're moving on, and we preachers are sitting still. That's it. They move on up till they can split an atom. But when we name divine healing, or something another: "We'll see what Moody said about it; what Dr. So-and-so said." They were all right in their age, we're moving on. Science can only climb so far and it falls back. We got the unsearchable promises of God, untapped resources, yonder. But the thing of it is, they have to look back and see if their school of thoughts taught it.
28 I don't care what the school said. The Bible said it, and that's God's science book; it never can fail. Though heavens and earth pass, if God's Word said so, it's the truth. Amen. That's true.
Notice. How... Here sometime ago, they told me... I was preaching. There was a man come up and said, "Hey, preacher, I want to tell you something. You keep saying, 'Man thinks in his heart.'"
I said, "The Bible said so."
Said, "Well, them men wrote the Bible, they were just ignorant, see." Said, "There's no such... There's no mental faculties in your heart to think with." Said, "You think with your head, your brain. Your mind is what thinks." Said, "That's where you think from. There's no mental faculties in your heart."
I said, "I don't know where it's at, but God said it was in the heart, and I believe it. That's all I know."
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Luke 21:33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
29 And about six weeks ago, I was in Chicago, and a great big line on the front page, where science has found that in the human heart, in the center of the human heart, is a little compartment where even a corpuscle or blood cell never touches. The animal life hasn't got it, but the human has got it. And science says, "It's the occupation of the soul." Hallelujah! Then God's right after all. He's always right. Yes, sir.
So, that's what's the matter with people today. You come to the church, the water of separation. That's all right. Hear the Word, that's very good. You get separated from your sin. But you go out with an intellectual faith. That's the reason you can't believe. That's the reason you go back out and sin the way you do, the reason you can't hold up from one revival to another. If you'd let that intellectual faith move down through your brains, into your heart, then it becomes a reality, with a new birth. Then it'll stay there, anchored forever. God sealed you in by the Holy Spirit, and it settles it forever.
30 Get away... Intellectual faith is all right, that's as far as the nominal Christian goes. He hears the Word. He believes it. He has a mental conception of it. That's fine. We believe that. But, notice, when the man come to the waters of separation, which was Word: "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word." We believe that. God wants us to believe it. That's part of it. But that's as far as he ever gets. He never gets into the fellowship yonder. He just comes to the water of separation. And when he comes to that part, he finds a mental conception: "Yes, I believe it," thinks it in his mind, raises up his hand, accepts it, and twenty days from there, he's back in the same rut he was in the first place. Because it's never went any farther than his head. Right.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
31 Some fine, great minister, from down here in the South, took a plane and flew up and met me, here some time ago. He said, "Brother Branham, I was reading one of your sermons in a paper." He said, "There's just one thing I want to settle with you."
And I said, "All right."
He said, "How can you do anything else but believe?" He said, "Abraham was the father of the promise, and when he... He believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. What more could Abraham do but believe?"
I said, "That's correct, sir. That's all he could do. But, God give him the seal of circumcision, as a confirmation of his faith." And I said, "Ephesians 4:30, says, 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed until the day of your redemption.' If you raise up and confess Christ, and say that you believe Him with intellectual faith, and God has never give you the Holy Ghost, yet, He's never confirmed your faith yet." Amen.
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
32 That's the confirmation! Is the Holy Spirit. You believe; God confirms it with the Holy Ghost. Then you believe it with your head; God puts it in your heart by a birth. Amen. That's kind of a little old-fashioned, but, brother, it's kept me all these years, and I've starred death in the face. I'm ready to trust it on. And if it was good enough for me, it was good enough for Paul, it was good enough was Silas, it was good enough for the Hebrew children, it'll take you through too, if you'll just believe it.
All right. Waters of separation. Come hear the Word. Just like, usually people come ... I know, I passed through the city, and seeing these big homes. I appreciate that. But there's none of you but lives in a three-room house. That's all you can live in. You just live in a three-room house. When God was here, He lived in a three-room house. That's all you could live in. The first is your kitchen. The next is your dining room ... or, living room. And the next is your bedroom. You may have three or four bedrooms, or a couple of dining rooms, or something, but really, that's just extra rooms.
33 You come first to the kitchen. The kitchen is where you eat. After you come and eat, like the church, you sit on the bench and hear the Word. "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word." Then, after you have eaten the Word, then you come into the living room, which is into fellowship with the rest of the church. Then after that, the secret place is the bedroom, where you go in and kneel down. Where a bunch of you mammies used to, a long time ago, go in there and pray for your children when they was out at night.
That's what's the matter with the world today, instead of them old-fashioned mammies back yonder, a long time ago, that prayed for their kiddies and things, they're out with their kiddies tonight, smoking, drinking, carrying on like they are. That's the reason we got juvenile delinquency. They talk that we are more civilized than they were. I doubt it. We sure don't act like it. That's one thing true.
I like that old-fashioned type. Why, let me tell you, brother, they talk about the illiteracy of Kentucky. I've preached up in them old mountains there, when we was standing on the hillside, and those old mammies out there, with them big, old, long bonnets on. And the women around make fun of them. Say, "Look at them. Don't they look like old models or something like that?"
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
34 Let me tell you something, you let one of their girls go out and stay all night, come in the next morning, the way some of yours does, brother, I mean, there'd be a difference in that family. Yes, they sure would. She would about blister her all over that hillside with a tobacco stick or something. You know that's the truth, and then you call her illiterate.
Look! I got two girls, too; I don't know what they'll come out.
I see them laying out, stretched out in these yards even around here. I didn't think the South would ever allow that. I was surprised. Laying out on the streets, them little old clothes on, getting a sun tanning.
My, kids might do that; I don't say they won't. But, brother, they'll get a sun tanning, but it'll my father's son, tanning them with a barrel slat, as hard as I can, bringing them in. That'll be the kind of tanning they'll get. And that's what we need today is some more old-fashioned, God-sent, Holy Ghost, second-born baptizing of the Spirit of God. For the Word, preaching under the blood---a Christ-centered thing that separates. Christ hates sin. The Holy Ghost hates sin. No wonder people hate sin... No wonder people hates the Holy Ghost, I mean, is because they can't love light when they're walking in darkness. Amen. That's true, and you know it's true.
35 When a man comes to the waters of separation, that's all right. But don't stop there. The next thing, the blood went before him, and made seven stripes over the door. And every believer, after once coming and hearing the Word, comes to Christ, saying, "Yes, I believe that." That's intellectual. That's fine. Then he walks towards the door, and before he can come into the door, there's an ensign lifted up there, to show that something died and went before him, to make a way into the door. Christ died for every sinner and every sick person here tonight. He did. The ensign lifted up, which was the...
Leviticus 4:6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the veil of the sanctuary.
36 In the Old Testament we find Ruth there, and Boaz, a very beautiful type of the Redeemer. How that he'd redeemed as an ensign lifted up. How that Naomi had left the lands, went out in the time of depression, and very hungry, she was. And she'd lost her husband and so forth. She brought her daughter-in-law back with her---Ruth. And when they returned back, in the season of barley; beautiful type of Christ here. Some people just look over that. There's not a word in the Testament, but what speaks of Jesus Christ. Everything in the Bible points straight to the cross; everywhere.
There, that story of Ruth, just a moment (off our lesson for a moment.) Look at her, when she returned back, and she had lost all of her estate; everything she had, had been taken. She was left poor, nothing. And when she come in, she sent the young Ruth, which had forsaken her gods (type of the Gentile church) ... had forsaken her gods to come and live with Naomi. Where she lived, she'd live; where she died, she'd die; and her God would be her God.
Ruth 1:1 Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
Ruth 1:16 And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
37 And later, we find out she went to glean in the fields. And when she did, she gleaned in Boaz's field, which was a near kinsman. And when he seen her, it was love at the first sight. And he found out who she was, and wanted to marry her. In order to do it, he had to redeem Ruth ... or, Naomi, rather. And in doing so, he must first be a kinsman. Now, notice, what a beautiful picture here of the ensign, while we dwell on it a moment.
Ruth in the field, poor---type of the church. We come in by the Jewish church, through a Jew, born under the law. Christ died. I used to think it was Jewish blood. I had to correct that. He was neither Jew nor Gentile blood. He was the blood of God. His mother was a Jew; His Father was God, Himself. The blood comes from the male sex. It was a creative blood, not sexual at all. It was the blood of God. He was neither Jew nor Gentile, but God manifested in flesh. Then, when He was here on earth... Look at Him, as He walked.
Now, back to Ruth, just a moment, and look at it. When Boaz seen her, he fell in love with her. And he commanded her not to leave that field, but to stay right there and glean fastly. That's what God does to every believer that once comes to Christ: Stay with Him! Don't be carried about with every wind of doctrine; stay right with Christ.
Ruth 2:8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:
38 And he said, "I have commanded a young man." He said, "Now, as you go along, the reapers, the angels," he said, "every once in awhile, let her glean wherever she wants to, and then drop a little handful on purpose." I kind of like those little handfuls, don't you? Just a little good old-fashioned Holy Ghost revival now and then, you'll get a handful. She had picked up the handfuls, and she thrashed them out, happy, taking them back.
And that night, she went down to when he was winnowing wheat that night, at the garner, at the barn. Boaz laid down. And when he laid down, Ruth (Notice this.) not ashamed to dispose herself to this man. As the real true born-again church, tonight, is not ashamed to dispose herself to the Holy Ghost-call of God. Went right down into the barn with this man, giving him trust. Every man that comes to Christ must forsake everything, on both sides, and put his full faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what your mother says, what your daddy says, what this says, or mama says, or what anybody says; trust Christ. Don't be afraid.
She walked in. And when he found out she give that trust, he throwed his robe over her (You won't have to tell you what that means: the Holy Spirit, of course,) to cover with his own robe. And he said, "Now, you go on. When daylight comes, I've got to do the work of a kinsman before I can receive you."
Ruth 2:15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:
Ruth 2:16 And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.
Ruth 3:7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.
Ruth 3:9 And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.
Ruth 3:11 And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.
Ruth 3:13 Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth: lie down until the morning.
39 And so he went down to the gates (Now look.) to do the work of a kinsman. You ministers, this is not new to you; but for the congregation. Went down to the gate, where all the elders of Israel come in, and a kinsman now to redeem, he must be a near kinsman. He just ... he can't be just anybody; he must be a kinsman.
And look how God, being back in Spirit, was manifested in flesh, and took on the human form of a man, to become kinfolks to the human race; to know what suffering means; to know what sickness means; to know what temptation means. God became man, to become kinfolks with man, to redeem man back to Himself. Oh, how, if you could only see that, sinner, tonight, it ought to melt your heart. See that God, back yonder, beginning: holy; when He walked with Moses, as a pillar of fire, on top of a mountain. If any man touched the mountain, he must be killed. God trying to get into man's heart.
The next thing God did, was manifested in the flesh. Christ! God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. He was born a man here, made kinfolks, in order to pay the price of redemption. Then He was killed there in order that His Spirit might be set free to come back in the form of the Holy Spirit. All that God was He emptied into Christ. All the great eternals of God was emptied into Christ; and all that Christ was, He emptied into the church. And men and women are afraid to claim their God-given privileges, and stand upon the truth of it.
40 "A little while and the world seeth Me no more, yet, you will see Me, for I will be with you, I will be in you, even to the end of the world."
Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Your kinsman Redeemer, God Himself made flesh here on earth, to take away the sins and clean out the way, that He might fellowship again with His creature. Amen. God in you, the hope of Glory. The Holy Spirit itself, coming into the human heart, to take away sin and condemnation, to heal you and make you well, and fellowship with Him. There you are.
Boaz had to become a ... went, and he was a close kinsman. And then, to make a public testimony... It had to be a public testimony that he had redeemed Naomi and all that she had lost. Amen. I know I act a little funny, but I just can't help it. My heart bubbles when I think of that great picture: how he had to redeem Naomi in order to get Ruth. When he had to redeem her, he had to redeem everything she lost.
Ruth 4:7 Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel.
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
John 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
41 And when Christ came, to become man here on earth, and be a Kinsman Redeemer, He redeemed man to everything he lost in the fall; Christ restored it to him in the kinsman redeemership. When He died at Calvary, your health, your eternal life, everything that you lost in the fall: Christ redeems you to it, for He's your Kinsmen Redeemer. Your health, your strength, and everything that you lost, belongs back to you, tonight, through the Lord Jesus. He became kinfolks to take away sin and sickness.
He redeemed her back everything she had. He plucked off his shoe and made a public ensign, that all that come in and out, might know that he had redeemed everything that Naomi lost, and he was in full possession. What a beautiful picture!
Christ, the old rugged cross hanging on Golgotha, paid the sin penalty. "He was wounded there for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed." Everything the human race lost in Adam, was redeemed when Christ, God, Himself, become kinsfolk with the human race and won it back to His Maker. All that was lost, He redeemed back again. What a marvelous picture! Can you see it, sick folks?
Then He's here tonight, in His great holy being, His great august presence, moving among the people, wanting you to believe that. That's all you have to do, just believe that; nothing else but just believe it, and watch Him reconcile it.
Ruth 4:8 Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.
Ruth 4:9 And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi.
Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
42 Notice. Every man then coming to ... after coming to the waters of separation, hearing the Word, then he must come to the public ensign. The testimony, the public testimony, that before he could enter into there, something died in his place, and he went under the blood then, into the third room to fellowship. Then we have fellowship one with another, while the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son lifted up for an ensign, cleanses us from all unrighteousness, all filthy habits of the flesh. There's a blood stream over the whole world, tonight, that, "Whosoever will may come and take of the waters of life freely."
God sends ministers, anoints them to preach the Word. He sends some with great gifts. He sets some in the church, first, prophets ... or, first, apostles, and teachers, and evangelists, and prophets, and so forth. All those things for the perfecting of the church. Sent His Word; they preach it. It's the water of separation. Here comes the others along, performing their offices.
1 Corinthians 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Ephesians 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
43 Why do we sit and linger, knowing that some day we've got to stand in His presence. This very night our heart may make its last beat and our soul take its journey. Then, we don't have to be judged; we're already judged. When God said in the garden of Eden, "The day you eat thereof that day you die." That's God's Word. Christ died in your stead, was made a waters of separation for you, was made a blood of cleansing for you, was made a seal to seal you by the Holy Spirit, that you be recognized in the presence of God. Then you walk right over the top of it, and fail to refuse it ... refused, rather, to receive it. Then, you've judged yourself. Sinner friend, tonight, how is it with you?
I was told today, that I'm holding a little too long, and I've done went past time now. I didn't aim to stay. Maybe, tomorrow night Brother Moore will be here, and he can do the preaching, and come right in and start praying for the sick.
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
44 I wonder, tonight, if you tonight will only look yonder and see what a price that Christ had to pay for your soul. What if I had a bunch of little capsules here, tonight, that I'd guarantee you through the ages has been proved, if you'd take this little capsule you would live five hundred years. Why, you'd be rushing to this platform to get them. If they cost thousands of dollars, you'd pawn everything you had, and sell out right now, to get them, to assure you of a hundred years of life.
But, I'm telling you tonight, not a little capsule, but a look towards Calvary, not only five hundred years, but forever you'll live in the presence of Him, with an immortal body. And you don't have to pay one thing; every price is already paid. The only thing you have to do is raise your hand, say, "Lord Jesus, I believe it with all my heart and accept it now."
45 Shall we bow our heads a moment?
While you got your heads bowed, around the arena, I want you to think of it just now. Waters of separation, preaching of the Word, lifting up of the Lord Jesus as a ensign. Won't you come now to Him humbly and sweetly and bow at His feet and say, "Lord Jesus, in my heart, I've been all confused for a long time; but tonight, I believe I understand a little better now. I believe the Holy Spirit has talked to me, so I want to receive You just now, as my own personal Saviour. And, God, in returns, will You give me the Holy Spirit of promise, and seal me into Your kingdom? Take this intellectual faith that I have now, and make it a reality by putting it in my heart by the Holy Spirit."
46 Our Heavenly Father, as we draw nigh unto Thee, knowing that the great Redeemer, the friend indeed and in need, stands near now. As I look around this arena, I'm thinking of in Rome, where I stood there and seen the old cross raised up, where the Christians had died. Tonight, Christianity, to every unbeliever, is on trial. God, grant that many tonight, will receive Him, seeing what He's done for them. He's the waters of separation through His Word, here, to everyone that'll hear.
[Gap in the audio] ... will believe He's eternal life to those who will receive Him. Grant it tonight, Father, as You've done so many things across the world, showing great signs and wonders of Your infallible proof that You're here with us. May every person that's tossed about, shook around on shifting sands of men's ideas. May they just lay it all aside tonight, say, "Lord Jesus, I may have come many times, but tonight, I'm coming with all my heart. I come now, Lord."
47 While we have our heads bowed, I'm going to ask you something, a serious question. Be in prayer. I wonder just tonight, just at this time, how many around, anywhere now, just... You don't get saved by lifting up your hands. But, you want God to know that you really in your heart, feel like you're just want to get just a little closer to Him, and want Him to save you. Will you raise your hand up God, not to me? Don't no one look, but just let me and the Holy Spirit. God bless you. God bless you. You, you, you. [Gap in the audio]
"I'll be with you even to the end of the world." He's the same yesterday, today and forever, in principal, in power.
Now what if Jesus was standing here tonight, and I brought this man sitting here up here to me and he was sick and--and--and--and Jesus was standing here wearing this suit that He gave me? Now listen close. What if He come up here and was standing here at the platform now wearing this suit, that He gave me. Now He'd look around upon you, and He'd see maybe this lady here, I see she's got this little sick baby laying there in her lap. And I--I see a lady laying here and some laying on stretchers, cots.
What would He do if He was--if He was standing here? Would He say, "Come here and let Me heal you?" He couldn't do it, He could not do it, because He's already done it. See? He's already did it. "By His stripes you were healed." He'd say, "Don't you believe that I died for you back there? Don't you believe that I, that that was Me Who died yonder for your sickness? Don't you think I was wounded for your transgressions, with My stripes you were healed? Can't you believe My word?"
See He can't do... That's one thing man can't do, man cannot forgive sins, and man cannot heal sickness. They can't do something that God has already done. See? You can't do it. You just have to have your faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary.
48 Now, He can send preachers to preach the Word. And He... If He's raised from the dead, He can actually come into His seers. You know what a seer is? A person's born to see visions, and so forth. If He was standing here... He was a seer: King of seers.
Joseph, Christ was in Joseph, you believe that? And Joseph was borned a seer. He saw visions and interpret dreams. He was born that way. His brothers hated him. It's still the same thing today, always has been. Always. But he was a seer. His other brothers was as good has he was, but, the rest of them, but he was. But he was a seer, spiritually. God made him a seer.
And Christ, when He was here on earth, He didn't claim to be a great healer. He just said, "I only do what the Father shows Me to do." Is that right? He looked upon his audience, he perceived what was in their hearts. He told somebody, "Your faith has made you whole." Why do you reason in your heart? Is that right? That's what He done here on earth.
And with He's raised from the dead, He can do the same things. For He said, "The same things that I do, you'll do also." Then if He will repeat that tonight; if He will come right here in person, invisible to the human eye, you can see it by visions sometimes.
They got the picture here of It, or some has many times where thousands look at it: a light. To me It's the same Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. See? And it's not me. I just represent Him with the group. He's here. It's with you, too. It's with everybody, see. He's here tonight. And then some of them are sent for preachers. Some of those ministers could take the text that I took tonight, and, my, make a real sermon out it, but ... and ... because they were called to be preachers, see.
49 Now, to me, I was called ... given a gift to see visions. It's not me. The preacher wouldn't want just him preach the Word; it's the Holy Spirit in him preaching the Word. And it isn't me seeing the visions; it's God seeing the vision. It's using your eyes, using your tongue, using your lips. Now that's right.
And if Christ will come tonight, here to this platform; and as I call a line, up across this platform, if I can get order and so forth, without him going out there and giving out cards ... I'd just like to ask you: If I can bring the people up here at the platform, and you'll see the Lord Jesus Christ come into this audience of people and perform the very same things that He did back there, will you be willing to accept it, and thank God for it, and have your faith put right in it? Sure you will! Then if you do that...
Let's just ask Him this... Let's ask Him, before we call anyone, or anything else... The boy didn't give out cards. Let's just, before we line anybody up, let's just ask Him to show me visions out there to you, before we even line anybody up. That would fair enough, wouldn't it? Now, let's pray.
50 Heavenly Father, You know the crucial moment. I feel that Your Spirit is here. I'm not saying that these people could hear me, but I'm saying it to You. I feel Your anointing right here at the platform. Lord, You know my heart; You know whether that's truth or not.
And I feel that I was going to make the altar call and leave, but, seemingly, that there's something else You want. I pray, Father, that You'll help me in this matter. I don't know what to do, but something keeps me from leaving the platform. And I pray at this time, as I've said this, may You help me, and visit over these people. Whatever You would have me to say to them, I now commit myself unto Thee, Lord. And if Thou doest sent Your great Spirit and anoint Your servant, we'll be very happy and thankful. And the audience could all be healed at one time, Father. I pray that You'll grant this in Jesus' name, Thy dear Son. And for His glory, only. Amen.
51 Now, I just want you to look this way. I want you to be real reverent. I just want to talk to the audience. There's none of you that I know out there. You realize that. I don't know you; I've never seen you, lest I'd... If I did, I don't know it. I know some of these boys sitting right here.
Now to you way back there, I want you to come right in your fellowship. It's the same thing. It's a fellowship of the Spirit. We're all in Christ now, see. We're seated together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. Isn't He wonderful?
52 Now I want you to just look. As Peter and John said, "Look on us." And they did, expecting something. If I took glory for this, I'd be a liar and a hypocrite. Nothing I can do. I'm just a man like you are. But there's an audience of people, probably---I don't know how many is sitting out here---a few hundred sitting around the side. But, if Christ will, He can.
And He can come here at this platform, tonight. If I can submit myself to Him, as His servant, He can tell me what to tell you. That's right. You believe it, don't you?
And if He'll do that, you'll see, friends, that I've told you... Will you believe that I've told you the truth? And then what is the truth? That you are already healed, every one of you. You just have to accept it. That's all. And then, if I've told you that, and God confirms it to be the truth, surely you got faith enough to move on it, then, haven't you?
Acts 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
53 Now, let's just sing a song, if you will. You know in the disciples' time, the time of the Bible, they sang a hymn. Let's sing: Only Believe. If you give us a chord, on... This is something new; I never do this. But, I don't know if it'll even be... If it don't, I'm going to have some ushers, and so forth to get together in a few minutes, and form a prayer line. If it can be ... if God will grant it. Amen.
While Paul spake these words, he looked upon a man, and fastened his eye upon him, said, "Sir, I perceive." Is that right? See? Scripturally! Now, may He add His blessings. Oh, what a time! Some day, I got to meet you, every one. And Almighty God knows that that light that you see on that picture, is standing not two feet from where I am right now. It's the truth. It's moving into my right side, right here. His grace, His mercy! I'm asking Him, if He will vindicate truth.
Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
Acts 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
54 Truth, Lord, Thy Word is truth. O Eternal God, who formed the heavens and earth, who made all things by Jesus Christ, who we love and appreciate. O God, this dark day that we're living in. Men, going through the earth, not knowing You. "Teachers, heaping together teachers with itching ears, be turned from the truth to fable, heady, high-minded, having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof."
O God, have mercy tonight. Manifest Yourself, Lord Jesus. You're here. We love You. We believe You. And I know You're here. Make Yourself known, Lord, to this audience. Thou knowest this audience; I know them not. But that they might know that You're servant has told them truth about Thee, I pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Have faith in God. Jesus, passing by a tree one day, He didn't see no fruit on it, He said... He never had to stomp it, or kick it. He said, "No man eateth from thee from here on." And there was no one eat from it. It dried up. Said, "Have faith in God. For if Thou would say to this mountain, be moved, and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, you can have what you say."
Mark 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
Mark 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
2 Timothy 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
55 God, that's the faith we want. The faith that was once delivered to the saints. The faith that our Lord Jesus looked out and seen a woman with a blood issue. Her touching Him with her faith, said, "Be of a good cheer. Thy faith has saved thee."
I see... Yes, thanks be to God. I see a man sitting, looking right at me; he's in prayer. Between he and I, becomes a light, streak---moving. The man is a heavy-set man. He's looking right at me. He's suffering with heart trouble, the man sitting right back there. That's right, sir. You can go home now, a well man. Your faith has healed you.
That poor woman sitting right next to you there. Look this way, to me, sister. You believe me to be God's prophet ... or, servant? With all your heart you believe that? If God will make known to me what you're here for, if you got trouble, if He'll tell me what's your trouble, will you believe me as His servant? You will?
Your trouble is in your leg. Isn't that right? Now, isn't that the truth? You can stand up on your feet then. Jesus Christ makes you well. Amen.
Matthew 9:22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Mark 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Luke 8:48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
56 What about the lady sitting next to you? Do you believe it, lady? You believe me to be God's servant? His prophet? You look like a healthy woman. But do you believe that God could tell me right here---you know; I don't---what's wrong with you? Will you believe it then with all your heart? You suffer with a back trouble. That's the truth, isn't it?
That kind of shocked the lady sitting next to you. Do you believe that, lady, with all your heart? You, look at me. Do you believe me to be His prophet? If I'll tell you the truth, will you believe? You'll know it's the truth. Then you'll believe that I'm telling you the truth. The Light of God hangs over you. You're suffering with a kidney trouble. That's right. Stand on your feet, 'cause you can go home well.
57 Do you believe? Somebody in this sections over here, believe? Have faith. Somebody way back in the back of the realms, way back in there. Will you have faith? Of course, you're going over a bunch of spirit; you realize that. I see a dark shadow, right now moving around; it's a demon power. It's sitting between me and out in here; it's coming in. It's a little lady sitting... She's been praying; she's got her finger up to her mouth. The woman has got cancer. She's wearing glasses. That's right, isn't it, lady? Sitting there with that white dress on. Will you stand up on your feet then, just a minute? That's right. That's true, isn't it? All right. You believe that God could heal you?
Say! Wants to say something to you. You realize your condition. Your name is Johnson. Beatrice Johnson. You live at 1920 Jeff Davis Street, here in Macon, Georgia. That's right, isn't it? You accept the Lord Jesus now for your healer? Raise your hand to Him.
Father, in the name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, I condemn the death spirit hanging over this woman. And may she be healed for Your glory. I ask every man and every woman here, that believes right now, that Jesus Christ is here, the Son of God, that you'll stand to your feet now and accept Him as Your healer.
Almighty God, the author of life, You've manifested Yourself. Heal every person here. And I condemn every sickness.
Come out, Satan. I rebuke every evil spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, God's Son.